Lou Yunxiao acted cute

At that thought, he caught Lou Yunxiao by the wrist and sent his Divine Sense into him.

Lou Yunxiao stiffened, instinctively wanting to resist, but somehow relaxed again.

He vaguely felt that this sensation was familiar, too.

The mouse wasn't trying to hurt him.

He was willing to let the mouse examine his body.

The more Ning Ke examined him, the deeper his frown grew.

Lou Yunxiao's heart was gravely injured, forcibly held together by a mass of Demonic Aura. As though frozen, it no longer beat.

The foxfire Ning Ke had given him clung with difficulty to every meridian, forming a thin protective membrane with Lou Yunxiao's own spiritual energy to preserve this last untainted refuge.

Lou Yunxiao's spiritual energy was still at the peak of the Golden Core stage, but his Demonic Aura had already reached the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage.

There was an enormous gap of an entire stage between them.

To restore their previous balance, he would have to...

[Sacrifice yourself.] Xiao Yuan quietly interjected.

[Host, you have another task before you self-destruct: convert your demonic power into spiritual power and give it to Lou Yunxiao, helping his spiritual power reach the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage to match his Demonic Aura.]

Give him his eyes, give him his cultivation, expend every last ounce of strength reinforcing the seal, and then self-destruct.

That was what Ning Ke had to do over the next six months.

They really were... using everything he had.

"Mouse, where else do you want to go?" Lou Yunxiao's voice interrupted Ning Ke's thoughts.

He pulled down the silk ribbon covering his eyes himself, muttering that it was too stuffy, and blinked his gray-blue eyes as he stared at Ning Ke to "look" at him.

He said, "I'll go with you."

Ning Ke met his gaze and reached up to straighten Lou Yunxiao's crooked hair crown.

In the past, even when Lou Yunxiao couldn't see, he always kept himself neat and clean, sitting and standing with proper bearing.

Now, though, Lou Yunxiao was more like a carefree child, not bothering to straighten his clothes or hair when they became disheveled.

"You don't have to call me Mouse," Ning Ke said. "I have a name. I'm A Ke."

"You have a name, too. You're Lou Yunxiao, my senior brother."

"A Ke." Lou Yunxiao smiled a lot now.

Or rather, he loved to smile when he was with Ning Ke.

"A Ke."

"Good boy." Ning Ke patted his head, tugged on the chain, and led him back into the underground palace.

The underground palace was a ruin from ten thousand years ago, and it was enormous.

Ning Ke wandered through it until his eyes were dazzled, discovering several treasure chambers.

Although there were signs that someone had looted them, plenty of treasures remained.

On the principle that he might as well take what was there, Ning Ke had Lou Yunxiao open his Heaven and Earth Bag and stuffed anything valuable he saw into the boy's bag.

As the Demon Venerable, he could have anything he wanted.

He would give all these things to the male lead, so that after he died, Lou Yunxiao could use these treasures to revive his sect.

Lou Yunxiao asked, "A Ke, are we stealing Master's things?"

Ning Ke stiffened his neck and said, "Nonsense! How can you call it stealing when an honest man takes something?"

"Just think of all this as gifts from your master. Your master would be unhappy if you didn't take them."

"Okay." Hearing that, Lou Yunxiao grew excited.

He even began helping Ning Ke move the huge pill-refining cauldrons into his Heaven and Earth Bag.

He displayed a demon's greed to the fullest.

The two of them went from treasure chamber to treasure chamber, emptying each one out.

Until they found the stone stele at the center of the underground palace.

The instant Ning Ke saw the stele, he was dumbfounded.

Wasn't the carving on it the very same five-meter-tall talisman he had seen inside the Golden Silk Wooden Token?!

[Congratulations, Host, on finding the stone stele sealing the Great Demon. Side quest completion: fifty percent.]

As Ning Ke listened to the notification, a whole series of questions suddenly occurred to him.

In this novel, Ning Xiaoxiao was an orphan, so who were her parents?

And who had given her the Golden Silk Wooden Token hanging at her waist?

Why did the wooden token contain the talisman and array formation Heaven's Way had used to seal the Great Demon ten thousand years ago?

Weren't these questions, just like the destruction of the Flowing Cloud Sect, among the biggest holes in this world?

"A Ke..." Lou Yunxiao's voice was hoarse. Ning Ke turned and only then realized how terrible his complexion looked.

The runes on the stele also brightened as the two of them approached.

Clearly, its aura was making Lou Yunxiao uncomfortable.

Ning Ke hurriedly pulled him farther away.

"A Ke, I don't want to stay here. I want to leave."

Lou Yunxiao honestly voiced what he wanted.

But Ning Ke knew full well that since Lou Yunxiao couldn't get out right now, the closer they stayed to the stele, the safer they would be.

After all, this stele was also the thing that demon hated most.

Unless absolutely necessary, even if the demon woke up, he wouldn't think to come here.

So Ning Ke thought for a moment, then tugged at Lou Yunxiao's clothes again and wheedled.

"But I want to stay here. Senior brother, won't you indulge me and stay here with me? I promise I absolutely won't run away."

"..."

Lou Yunxiao fell silent.

After a long while, he raised a hand and tapped his lips.

He said nothing, but his meaning was unmistakable.

"..." This time, Ning Ke was the one who fell silent.

If Xiao Yuan was right and this really was Lou Yunxiao's true nature, then my senior brother has been fooling me all along!

At least I don't have to worry about him liking pretty girls and going after my little sister!

I'm the juiciest piece of meat myself!

Still...

A real man knows when to bend!

Lou Yunxiao is handsome anyway. I won't lose out either way!

After an intense inner struggle, Ning Ke placed his hands on Lou Yunxiao's shoulders, tilted his head, and kissed him.

Cartoonish streams of tears wouldn't stop running down his face. (╥╯^╰╥)

I've been single for twenty-five years and never kissed a single soft, sweet-smelling girl, but now I have to kiss a man all day long.

Fate really does toy with people.

Lou Yunxiao's gray-blue eyes narrowed.

Before Ning Ke could pull away, he caught the back of his neck and pressed him against the curved wall.

His other hand gripped Ning Ke's waist.

It felt slender, warm, and soft.

"Th-that's enough..." Ning Ke pushed at him, only for his sash to come undone.

Lou Yunxiao wedged his knee between Ning Ke's legs.

Fuck!

How is he so good at this?!

Your cool, ethereal image is falling apart!

And weren't those runes making you miserable just now?!

What's with all this boundless energy now?!

"You can't eat it all!" Ning Ke finally found an opening to get the words out.

That made Lou Yunxiao stop.

The young man, who stood a little taller than him, lowered his head.

He nuzzled his forehead affectionately against the crook of Ning Ke's neck.

In a low, hoarse, aggrieved voice, he murmured, "I like A Ke..."

His voice was even softer than Ning Ke's had been when he was wheedling earlier.

He kept saying, "Yunxiao likes A Ke so much..."

"Yunxiao likes A Ke best..."

"A Ke, will you let me hug you and kiss you a little more?"

"Yunxiao won't eat it all. Just a little. Just a little, okay?"

Fuck!!! (ΩДΩ)

Lou Yunxiao is actually acting cute!!

How! Can! He act cute?!

He's the male lead! The originally straight male lead!

The male lead who'll have a whole crowd of women falling for him once he regains his sight!

But...

Ning Ke lowered his eyes and could see Lou Yunxiao's soft, pitiful expression.

Desire had tinged those gray-blue eyes with a faint red. Though vacant and unfocused, they were extraordinarily beautiful, like frosted gemstones.

So intoxicating.

Fuck! So intoxicating!

And so Ning Ke let out a long sigh, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he closed his eyes and gave up.

"Go ahead and kiss me."

He said.

"Kiss me until you're satisfied."